‘Ekiti Governor has laid enduring foundations’

Foremost poet and literary critic Mr. Odia Ofeimun has said Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has laid foundations for enduring development in the state.

Applauding the government’s Urban Renewal Programme, Ofeimun said the traditional building pattern in most Nigerian cities, “which many governments have accepted, is wrong for genuine planning”.

He said for meaningful planning to take place, “the amount of destruction you have to do is enormous”.

The poet spoke with The Nation in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, during a tour of the capital in preparation for his stage play, entitled Nigeria: The Beautiful, which is part of activities slated for the second anniversary celebration of the Fayemi administration.

Ofeimun said: “Kayode did something interesting. He slowed down the process of action in order to amass enough, so that when he launched, he did it in a more rapid pattern. What I have seen points in that direction.”

He said the building of roads by the administration would boost commercial activities.

Ofeimun said: “A road makes it easier for people to commute and hastens development. If there is always traffic gridlock in your state, it means people would not able to do as much business as they can daily.”

The poet said he moved round the capital to ascertain whether Fayemi deserved the award he recently got as the “Leadership Governor of The Year”.

He said: “It is really exciting to see the roads being built in Ekiti. It is like turning the whole place into a large building site. I want to be honest, I needed to see things for myself to be convinced he deserves the award he got recently and I am seeing reasons for the award.

“If a poor state like Ekiti is evidently doing this, what is happening in more blessed states, which have refused to commence the journey, despite having enough.”

Justifying his absence from the public domain lately, the writer said it is useless to speak all the time, if your comments would not bring useful changes to governance.

Ofeimun opposed the common opinion that Nigeria has enough resources to grow. He said the resources were trapped in a few pockets.

Ofeimun condemned the Federal Government’s policy, which allows the existence of alternative examination bodies such as the National Examinations Council (NECO) and the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN).

Decrying the fallen standard of education, he said the alternative public examination bodies were created by the political class to make things easy for their children.

Ofeimun said: “It is very embarrassing to see someone who will want an exam done for him or her. I never knew until recently that someone can pass an exam he/she did not sit for. The first thing they discover when such person enters an institution is that the person did not actually attend any school.

“This all started when the Federal Government started changing the standards by which you enter an institution. Consider Nigeria moving away from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) because the standard was too rigorous and creating NECO.

“It is an embarrassment to realise that those who attended public institutions of the highest standards were the ones who set the basis for the growth of the existing decay. They now do for their children what their fathers would never have done for them.”

Planning is about originality. Despite d fact that Fayemi is changing d face of Ekiti so meticulously, the DEMO ppl are wallowing in base & primordial sentiments. Dem-all-crazy!

QASIM, Yomi

IT IS LEFT FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE FOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE TO BUILD WITH THEIR GOD GIVEN GOVERNOR OR FURTHER SINK DOWN WITH THE AFFLICTION AFFLICTING PDP PARTY AS IS WITH THEM IN ONDO STATE. WHERE N650 BILLION ALLOCATION FOR THREE YEARS = MARKET STORES, MOTOR PARKS AND PUBLIC MONIES IN GOV. MIMIKO’S, UNION LEADERS AND FEW PEOPLES’ POCKETS, WON GBA SIBE. ECONOMICALLY STATE OF EKITI WILL SOON BE MORE VIABLE AND FRIENDLY THAN NEIGHBORING ONDO.
OH ALLAH! STRENGTHEN THE HANDS OF THE GOV. AND EKITI PEEOPLE AMIN.